Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Star Ocean: The Divine Force

After seeing the reviews yesterday evening I decided to give it a go. I like the gameplay from the demo and decided to wait for the full reviews, since it's fairly good reviews I bought it. Played about 5 hours today. The text is still very small though hoped they would have fixed it since the demo but they didn't. The combat feels very good even with the limited ap system which makes it feel like tales of arise in a bit, but you can easily switch between party members and the usage of the travel robot dumas is actually pretty nice for both combat and traversal as well. It's clear that it's a budget game so not visually stunning or anything but the gameplay if fun until now

There's a bunch of decent Star Ocean games, but I haven quite enjoyed it that much since "til te end of time". I've got mixed feelings, kinda happy the franchise is back, but at the same time it doesn't feel like they've put the effort that, for me, SO deserved. I guess it's a secondary series. Might give it a try but not so sure based on the reviews. Will be interesting to see what you guys think and share here at some point.

Just bought it so will definitely be playing this after I'm done with atelier Sophie 2 and valkyrie elysium. I've only played two star oceans games so far and it's a mixed opinion from me, I was enjoying last hope 4k at first but then all of a sudden it got do damn hard especially the bosses as I wasn't good at the dodging mechanic, so I just gave up. Then with I&F it was more enjoyable and I did end up completing it.

But this one seems more my thing with big open maps and a battle system similar to Tales of Arise.

Please consider getting this if you like star ocean. The developers are in bad financial straits and this may be their last game if this doesn’t do well. This is their final fantasy to save the company. I got my copy today.

@Dydreamr are the developers struggling? They are owned by Square enix so they should be the ones funding this.

@UltimateOtaku91 tri-ace isn't owned by Square. Square is just the publisher of their games. The owner of tri-ace is Nepro Japan a mobile company.
The financial woes of tri-ace were in the news not long ago. They are in a state of insolvency appearantly so if this game doesn't sell well it might be ths end of the company if it isn't already to late by now

@UltimateOtaku91 Hey, yeah the developers are in bad shape. I believe it is because square Enix discontinued their main revenue source, a mobile game published in Japan.

Anyone interested in details can read this article: https://noisypixel.net/star-ocean-developer-tri-ace-financial-reports-company-loss/

@Dydreamr @Lavalera ah I see I didn't know that, I'm even more glad now that I've played my part in supporting this game, hopefully it sells well.

Do you know who owns the IP? If the worst happens can square enix keep the series alive by giving it someone else.

@Lavalera also since you've played the game a bit already, I'm reading that you pick between two protagonists, is this similar to scarlet nexus where you had to play the game twice to fully understand the story? Or is it minor choices but still get to use both characters in your party from the beginning.

@UltimateOtaku91 Not sure who owns ip, but company was originally founded in the 90s by developers who left the development of tales of phantasia to do their own thing which resulted in star ocean.

The gameplay is really fun, the plot is pretty standard but interesting....

But those graphics. YUCK.

I know graphics aren't everything and what have you, but I really hope there's some kind of next-gen update or something, because between the muddy, blurry textures, the weird plastic doll characters, and the atrocious lighting, this game is FUGLY in some places. I'll buy it when it's around 30 bucks because it IS fun, but seriously lol

@UltimateOtaku91 These are the kind of studios Microsoft should jump on if they really want to position themselves in the Japanese gaming market not flexing 7 year old jrpgs Japanese gamers have already played.

I've been a fan of Tri-Ace since the launch of Star Ocean: Second Story waaaay back on PS1. The series is one of the sacred jewels of the JRPG genre alongside legends like Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Wild Arms, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and the Xeno and Chrono series. I picked up my pre-ordered copy today to show my love for the series and my support for Tri-Ace who also brought us the venerated Valkyrie Profile franchise.

Once, Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile were THE series for the discriminating JRPG connoisseur. Brimming with expansive optional mechanics like relationship building PA's which influenced character relationships and affected endings, beautiful art design, creative stories, characters bursting with personality and some of the finest music in a genre famous for the quality of its soundtracks. They were the more exotic franchises players graduated to when they had finished Final Fantasy.

I really hope Divine Force does well, because Tri-Ace has brought so much joy to JRPG fans over the years, and they hold a special place in the history of JRPG gaming!

@UltimateOtaku91 that's a very good question. From what I've read about it, it isn't as big of a difference like Scarlet Nexus was. It's mainly that certain cinematic are different, different characters joining the party etc. It's mainly a backstory/lore thing, since the party is mostly together (at least what I think) for most of the game unlike Scarlet Nexus, where yuito and Kasane where apart for most of the story .

@armondo36 It does look like an Xbox 360 game running on Series X through backwards compatibility. That being said, it's tri-Ace, so I will support them. You know, if they're hurting financially, maybe uncle Phil can help them out.